After the central committee of the Communist Part of Nepal (Maoist) decided to prepare for 'tunnel war' with India, Maoist rebels have accelerated their anti-Indian campaign in mid-western hills. Local Maoist workers have said the new campaign is in response to the repeated arrests of Maoists in India and the Indian government's refusal to cooperate, adding that their party's view of India is beginning to resemble the way they view the United States. The Maoists have plans to establish a new brigade to take action against India. They have begun recruiting new cadres for this, saying that the time has come to fight for the country and against India. Under the new campaign, the rebels have been recruiting one person from each family in the hilly villages of mid-western Nepal. One such village is Kalagaun in Salyan district, from which 120 people have been recruited and are being trained to use arms.
The training lasts for a minimum of one week and the trainees are between 15-50 years of age. According to Maoist trainer Khim Bahadur Rana, the new recruits are being indoctrinated against "expansionist India and imperialist America" and therefore actions should be initiated against both the powers. But the Maoists have not made it clear what this action consists of. All that the party workers know is that their party's central working committee had recently decided to mobilise the workers against India and the US. Even though lower-level party leaders are unsure about what the leadership actually wants them to do, they have made it mandatory for each family to be trained to fight against foreign invaders. Such training is taking place in what the rebels call their 'base areas'. They have claimed that those undergoing training joined the Maoist fold voluntarily, but most of the trainees have said that they were forced to undertake the training.
Indian nightmare
Nepal, 26 September
These days, Indian security officials become extra alert when they get to hear the term Compact Revolutionary Zone (CRZ). This, according to the Indian Home Ministry, is a plan by the Maoists of Nepal and India to spread their revolution from Nepal to Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Chhatisgad, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Udissa and Andhra Pradesh of India. According to the Indian Home Ministry's latest annual report, incidents related to Naxalites have increased by almost 14 percent. Last year there were around 550 such incidents in which 509 persons were killed. The attack on Chandra Babu Naidu last year showed that their activities had really intensified.
When the Nepali Maoists began operating nine years ago, the Indian People's War Group (PWG) and the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) were their source of inspiration. Nine years down the line, their roles have been reversed. Today, the Nepali Maoists are much more battle-hardened and experienced than their Naxalite comrades in India. They are even a source of inspiration for the Indian revolutionaries. As a result, Nepali Maoists and the MCC have made several joint committees in the border areas between Nepal and India. In the meantime, the one-time sworn enemies PWG and the MCC have not only settled their differences, but are even planning a merger. The two Maoist groups have even coined a joint name for post-amalgamation-All-India Maoist Communist Centre. Interestingly, the Nepali Maoists are said to have played a pivotal role in this unification by facilitating the induction of a PWG unit into the MCC in Bihar. To deal with a now-hostile India, the Maoists have launched a campaign to unify separatist groups in India. There are around 50 such groups and most of them are active in sensitive bordering areas of Nepal, India, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar and China.
